Anekal: Electronic city’s poor cousin fights apathy

BENGALURU: Anekal is just about 15 km from Bengaluru’s key IT hub of Electronic City that is home to such giants as Infosys, TCS and Wipro and includes industrial suburbs like Jigani and Attibele in its jurisdiction.

Yet the assembly constituency remains largely defined by bad roads, crime rates and water scarcity. The constituency has been reserved for Scheduled Caste members since 1978, with Dalits and Adivasis constituting nearly 30% of its population.

Anekal was a BJP stronghold for 19 years before Congress candidate B Shivanna took charge after a landslide victory margin of 40,182 votes in the 2013 assembly elections. According to residents, most crimes in the constituency, which continues to battle untouchability in some areas, are caste-based. “We also suffered from lack of water for irrigation but the situation seems to be improving now,” said a woman resident, who did not want to be named, adding that stormwater drains are also being strengthened.


Candidates contesting elections this time include Congress’s B Shivanna, BJP’s A Narayanaswamy and BSP’s G Srinivas. Socially dominated by the Reddy and Gowda communities, Anekal has 40,000 Vokkaliga, 30,000 Kuruba, 20,000 Balija and about 15,000 Muslim voters. However, only one Dalit MLA has been elected in the past five decades.

Development also seems to be largely uneven, with rural areas lagging behind in terms of infrastructure and civic amenities. Many areas also struggle with power cuts. According to Vikayakumar, a Congress party worker in Anekal, the MLA’s focus has been to end water shortage and the future agenda includes building better roads and other basic infrastructure.